Dead Trees

Chapter 5

The launch room did not help ease the foreboding feeling I had in my gut, the walls were made of a reflective steel and there was no furniture except for the launch tube. With only Sergius for company I leaned against the wall in silence until a voice came over the intercom.

"One minute till launch."

I walked into the launch tube, Sergius didn't say anything, he just stared with a look on his face that suggested he had some pity for my situation.

"Thirty seconds till launch."

I went over the plan in my head; work out where Maple is, get to the cornucopia as quickly as possible, get an axe and whatever I can carry, get out and find Maple. The tube sealed itself and I began to ascend, I had not given the arena itself any thought yet, I was so fixated on the opening moments of the games that I hadn't considered how the arena itself might affect the days or weeks after these moments. All I hoped was that there were some trees to climb and hide in and there was some water.

As I rose into the arena, I was met with a landscape that I had never seen before, in person or in previous games. The closest thing I could compare it to was a forest but it had an arid desert quality. To my left was a large lake, but something was off about it, it was brown and covered in moss, I hoped there were other water sources in the arena because if it came to drinking that water or dying of thirst, I would need some convincing. There was something odd about the trees that surrounded us too, they were white with dark spots and they looked very smooth, they would be a lot harder to climb than the trees back in District Seven. The ground consisted of gravel and dirt with tufts of grass scattered across it, the sun was also unusually hot and I wondered why they had sent me into the arena with a jacket when I wouldn't have stopped them from sending me in with nothing but my underwear.

The sixty second timer before the beginning of the games began. I noticed that my legs were shaking and I was grinding my teeth. My podium was between the girl from Five and the boy from Twelve. I scanned the other tributes and locked eyes with Maple. She was between the boy from Eight and the girl from Two and had her back to the lake. Her being next to a career was concerning but hopefully they would focus on the slower, weaker tributes or the ones that had marked themselves as threats like the District Eleven tributes who were the only non-careers to match the scores of the kids from One, Two and Four. I nodded at Maple and she nodded back, in a few moments I would begin the worst days of my life assuming I lived till the night. The timer reached zero and the gong sounded.

I ran straight to the cornucopia, my plan relied completely on me getting out before anyone realized I had been there. A girl cut across me and I bumped into her, knocking us both to the ground. She scrambled to her feet and immediately fell back to the ground with an arrow in her back, I looked in the direction it had come from and saw the District One girl readying an arrow for me. I launched to my feet and ran past another tribute being bludgeoned by the boy from District One, I was sure he was dead but he was keeping the career from turning on me. I slid into the cornucopia where I saw an assortment of weapons with a rack of axes, one was already missing and I hoped Maple had been the one who had gotten it. I grabbed an axe as well as a steel water bottle which I slid it into my jacket before turning around to see Maple fighting off the boy from District Eleven. I didn't know what to do, helping her would keep me in the bloodbath and we might both die, I thought that having an ally that I could rely on was worth the risk. However, before I could make any movements towards her, she pushed the boy off her and sunk her axe into his chest. Cove from District Four ran up behind Maple, she noticed her but the axe was stuck in the tribute's chest. Defenseless, the knife was rammed into her back, Maple let out a yelp and looked at me with tears running down her cheeks, Cove stabbed her a few more times in the back before lifting her head up by her hair and slitting her throat, throwing her motionless body to the ground.

The world began to spin and I felt vomit in my throat, I had to get out of the cornucopia or I was going to end up like my district partner. I stumbled my way out and broke into a sprint, not stopping until I was well into the strange trees and the place where Maple had died was a distant memory. I bent over against a tree, resisting the urge to vomit, I wanted to let it out but if that lake in the center was the only water source, I did not want to lose any unnecessary fluids. I heard some voices coming towards me, I didn't know how many district pairings were still together but it could have been them or it could have been the careers coming to eliminate District Seven from the games. I tried to climb one of the strange trees but there weren't any low branches to grab and the bark was very smooth, after failing to climb with my hands and legs, I took off my jacket and wrapped it around the tree and used it to shimmy up.

My water bottle didn't have anything to drink in it but it had some iodine to purify any liquids I was bold enough to consume; it still didn't make the water in the lake at the cornucopia any more appealing but it was something. The axe reminded me of the weapon that Maple had died with in her hands, it seemed to be mostly made of metal with a plastic handle, I didn't want to look at it or hold it, it reminded me too much of her. I don't know if I would have called her a friend but she was one of the kinder people I had met, she had been patient with me in training and had spoken politely to everyone, even our idiotic stylists.

I was high enough in my tree that I didn't think anyone would notice me and even if they did, I had a hard time climbing it so there was no way someone from another district would be able to get to me and if by some chance they did, I had my axe. I spent the night in the tree, hoping the other tributes would spread themselves out throughout the arena. The hovercrafts towing the screen that displayed the daily count of the fallen of the day appeared in the sky; the District Three boy, girls from Five and Six and Maple, seeing her face again made me want to let the tears leave my eye that I had been holding in since the morning, I had failed her, if we had followed her plan, we would both be alive and, in this tree, together, she had trusted me and I had betrayed that trust. I took a small comfort in the fact that she had managed to get an axe and died with one in her hand like she wanted to, but that death should not have come today. After District Seven, it showed the boy from Ten, the pair from Eleven and the girl from Twelve. Eight dead in the first day, it wasn't as much as I would have hoped for but at least those left would distract the careers for some time.

It was time to put the nightmares of today in the past for now, I was sure they weren't the last I would encounter in the games. The temperature had plummeted in the night so I put my jacket back on, which meant I had nothing to use as a pillow. I found a bushy branch to lean my head on and closed my eyes.